Bernie Sanders: Hillary Clinton Hasn’t Shown the ‘Courage’ Necessary to Stand Up to Wall Street Power

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6 Jan 2016

Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sounded off on how large banks that were considered to be “too big to fail” seven years ago are now even bigger and how that poses a threat to the American economy.

According to Sanders, this is a result of Wall Street having such influence in American politics and if he were elected president, he would take on so-called Wall Street power, whereas he doesn’t see his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton having the “courage” to do so as well.

Do I think Hillary Clinton or many other senators have shown the courage that is necessary to stand up to Wall Street power? The answer is no. And the reason that I’m running for president – you know, as you know I know Hillary for 25 years. We are friends. But I think in this critical moment in American history, when you have a Wall Street situation, when you have an American middle class which is disappearing, when you have massive levels of income and wealth inequality, when you have climate change, we need a president who now has the courage to stand up to the billionaire class and Wall Street.”

Sanders reiterated that the main focus of his campaign was to take on Wall Street and corporate America in the name of combating income and wealth inequality.

“I am running for president because I think not, all right?” he added. “Because I think at this particular moment somebody has got to tell Wall Street and corporate America that their greed, their greed is destroying our economy and the lives of millions of people. They cannot have it all. Look, here’s the fact, the middle class of this country, despite huge increases in productivity, is disappearing. Forty-seven million people are living in poverty and you have massive levels of income and wealth inequality. Almost all new income and wealth is going to the top one percent. These guys who have a corrupt campaign, finances it, right? Billionaires are buying elections. We need leadership now to say, really, enough is enough. You guys can’t have it all. Period. That’s what my campaign is about.”